Ballets don’t just happen. Hours of grueling preparation precede the moment when the curtain rises and the dancers step into the glare onstage.

No matter how experienced those dancers are, they can’t prepare alone. A keen-eyed coach must guide them through the intricacies of the choreography.

New Jersey Ballet, which opens its 2013-2014 season this weekend at Centenary College in Hackettstown, is lucky. The company not only has a first-class repertoire in its "Balanchine/Robbins Evening"—a rich assortment of neoclassical masterpieces—but also the very finest coaches to rehearse them.

George Balanchine’s "Allegro Brillante," his "Pas de Dix" divertissement and the romantic "Who Cares?" (set to an arrangement of wistful Gershwin melodies) are all on the program. Dropping by the company’s Livingston studios to polish these gems is none other than Edward Villella. A former New York City Ballet star known to TV audiences across America, Villella later founded Miami City Ballet and led that company to international acclaim. On hand to coach Jerome Robbins’ "Interplay," meanwhile, is Edward Verso, a triple-threat veteran of "West Side Story" who also danced with American Ballet Theatre and the Joffrey Ballet.

"The more information dancers have," Villella says, "the better they will perform, because they know who they are onstage." Speaking of "Allegro Brillante," Villella says the ballerina and her cavalier are like a host and hostess welcoming the audience to their aerial realm.

Balanchine once claimed that "Allegro," which is set to Tchaikovsky’s sparkling Piano Concerto No. 3, contained everything he knew about classical ballet—all crammed into 13 minutes. "He minimizes distractions," Villella says. "He gets to the essence of things."

Haste and economy notwithstanding, the dancing requires a nuanced performance in order for the ballet to have the desired effect. "We are dealing in refinements," Villella says, "and we have to have all the shadings. You can’t just dance it on one level."

The dancers’ response to the music is especially important. "That’s the critical issue for me," Villella says. "You have to understand the attack, and the holding back. It’s phrasing. It’s not just the counts.

"I ask them to think not about dancing the steps, but dancing the music. That’s a very different approach."

Although Robbins’ "Interplay" also employs a bravura vocabulary, it’s a very different animal. "It’s not a classical piece," says Verso, who notes that the youthful characters in "Interplay" are like ordinary people having a conversation, falling in love, showing off to impress their friends and horsing around. The jazz score, by Morton Gould, gives the ballet a period feeling.

"These are teenagers who are playing out in the park somewhere, or in a field," Verso says.

The relaxed charm of "Interplay" doesn’t mean the dancers can goof off, however. They have to stay in character. Recalling Robbins’ own coaching, Verso says: "He would ask you questions like, ‘What did you have for breakfast?’ or ‘What did you do this morning?’ ‘Where did you just come from?’ Things like that.

"He was demanding. He was a perfectionist, and you learned a lot from him. You learned your character well."